Traditional art and sketching

Peruse our Sketching from the Imagination series, start your own sketch journal, or try your hand at clay sculpting! If you’re a complete beginner looking for a new hobby, or even an experienced artist looking for inspiration and workflow insights, our traditional art and sketching resources have plenty to offer!

3D digital art

Covering a wide variety of software and approaches, our books, magazines, and eBooks are there to offer you the support and motivation you need. Whether you want to sculpt a monster in ZBrush or create a stylized character in 3ds Max, take a look at our range to start your next project!

3D Art - Modelling, Digital and Game Art

This month brings you great interviews with the likes of Dmitry Cheremisin and Matthias Develtere, tons of tutorials covering modeling, texturing and rendering, and more besides! Whether you’re in the mood for characters, objects or vehicles, fantasy or sci-fi, we hope there’s something here to tickle your fancy.

Issue 118 brings you an informative joint interview with Henning Sanden and Morten Jæger, and a thoughtful chat with veteran environment artist Rob Watkins – all full of worthwhile advice that you should check out!

Concept design, 3D printing, texturing, and fantastic sci-fi art are at the forefront of this month’s issue. We speak to Tor Frick and Justin Goby Fields about their accomplishments, and marvel at Paul Braddock and James W. Cain’s 3D-printed handiwork. Mohammad Attaran also shares an insightful look into the making of our exciting cover image – it’s a tale of hard work and perseverance, which are of course the key to everything!

John A. Martini covers the entire process of developing a stunning photoreal scene, from pre-viz and setting up the 3ds Max physical camera, through modeling in Maya, creating objects in 3ds Max, texturing and shading, and finally culminating with in-depth tuition for lighting and rendering the final scene. Featured software includes: 3ds Max, Maya, V-Ray, Photoshop, ZBrush, and NUKE.

This month’s magazine is chock full of brilliant characters and creatures from a host of talented artists. We’re designing alien monsters and fantastical godlike beings, catching up with pro character sculptor Glauco Longhi, and taking a ride through Jonathan Ball’s technicolor world of teddy bears and giant rampaging robots. Something for everybody!

This month we speak to Argentine animation legend Juan José Campanella ahead of his star-studded new family movie, The Unbeatables. Louie Tucci shares his pearls of industry wisdom and gives us a sneaky peek at a 3D printer in action. John A. Martini cooks an actual burger in pursuit of his art, and Cézar Brandão shares a look behind one of his beautiful portraits.

One of the many things the artists in 3dcreative have taught us is the importance of following your passions. As such, we are pleased to be featuring the work of two of our favorite character artists: Bryan Wynia and Justin Bintz. Our cover artist Bryan reflects on his exciting career history, while Justin shares the excitement of the early stages of his success.

So many of the great 3D artists we speak to tell us how important history and traditional art is to them when it comes to references and inspiration, but in this issue of 3dcreative, we will be looking at what 3D skills can bring to the world of art history! Carlos Bayod Lucini explains how he and artist Manuel Franquelo have developed the Lucida scanner which, with the help of a few 3D artists, perfectly recreates historic monuments, preserving the original for generations to come.

We are constantly amazed by the advancements in 3D printing, repeatedly blowing our excitable minds! So this month we have brought in Francis Bitonti, best known for his collaborative 3D-printed dress worn by Dita Von Teese, to talk to us about careers in 3D design and his exciting new collaborations with MakerBot and 3D Hubs. On top of this, we look at the excellent craftsmanship of our cover artist, Pablo Muñoz Gomez’s ZBrush sketchbook, as well as checking out Kurt Papstein’s speedy sculpting and much, much more.

Fact: Mathieu Aerni created our cover image Get out of my yard!!! in just one night! This issue, Mathieu demonstrates that incredible 3D images don’t need to take days to create. With an understanding of sculpting anatomy and materials, you can generate interesting characters in next no time at all! Add to this helpings of character inspiration from the exceptionally talented Katon Callaway, and you get an issue packed with industry insights and helpful techniques.

This month, it is time to get started on some exciting new projects! Learn how to create a strong basis for your images with previz guidance to help you develop photoreal scenes and classic cars. You can also find out how to turn your photographs into perfect tillable textures with our guide to creating a texture library.

To kick-start another year of fantastic 3D creations, we have loads of inspiring content to get you thinking. Why not begin 2014 by developing your own texture library with Scott Davis, or hone your prop-sculpting skills with Joseph Harford?

The Unreal games engine is a hugely versatile system that has been used to power a variety of best-selling video games. In The Unreal Game Engine, environment artist Andrew Finch looks at how to create game levels from scratch using the free Unreal Development Kit, starting with modeling the environment. He then addresses the two different ways in which you can create accessories for your scene – modeling in 3ds Max and importing them, or creating them directly in UDK – before adding textures and lighting. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be a level designer and wanted some practical experience, then look no further than The Unreal Game Engine.